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                            <li id="publishDate">Last Published: 2012-11-11</li>
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                                                                                    <h3>Apache Log4j™ 2</h3>
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        <div class="section"><h2>About Log4j 2<a name="About_Log4j_2"></a></h2>

            <p>
              Log4j 2 is an upgrade to Log4j that provides significant improvements over its predecessor, Log4j
              1.x, and provides many of the improvements available in Logback while fixing some inherent problems in
              Logback's architecture.
            </p>

            <p>Some of the features and improvements in Log4j 2 are:</p>

            <div class="section"><h3>API Separation<a name="API_Separation"></a></h3>
            <p>
              The API for Log4j is separate from the implementation. It is now clear to application developers
              what classes and methods they can use with compatibility being assured while allowing
              improvements to be made to the implementation.
            </p>
            </div><div class="section"><h3>Improved Performance<a name="Improved_Performance"></a></h3>
            <p>
              Faster performance than Log4j 1.x in critical areas and similar performance to Logback in
              most circumstances. See <a href="performance.html">Performance</a> for more information.
            </p>
            </div><div class="section"><h3>Support for multiple APIs<a name="Support_for_multiple_APIs"></a></h3>
            <p>
              While the Log4j 2 API will provide the best performance, support for the SLF4J and Commons Logging
              APIs are provided.
            </p>
            </div><div class="section"><h3>Automatic Reloading of Configurations<a name="Automatic_Reloading_of_Configurations"></a></h3>
            <p>
              Like Logback, Log4j 2 can automatically reload its configuration upon modification. Unlike Logback,
              it will do so without losing log events while reconfiguration is taking place.
            </p>
            </div><div class="section"><h3>Advanced Filtering<a name="Advanced_Filtering"></a></h3>
            <p>
              Like Logback, Log4j 2 supports filtering based on context data, markers, regular expressions and
              other components in the Log event and can be specified to apply to all events before being passed
              to Loggers or as they pass through appenders. In addition, filters can also be associated with
              Loggers. Unlike Logback, a common Filter class can be used in any of these circumstances.
            </p>
            </div><div class="section"><h3>Plugin Architecture<a name="Plugin_Architecture"></a></h3>
            <p>
              All configurable components are defined as Log4j plugins. As such, no Log4j code must be changed to
              create a new Appender, Layout, Pattern Converter, etc. Log4j will automatically
              recognize properly defined plugins and use them when they are referenced in the configuration.
            </p>
            </div><div class="section"><h3>Property Support<a name="Property_Support"></a></h3>
            <p>
              Properties can be referenced in the configuration and either be directly replace or passed to the
              underlying component where they can be dynamically resolved. Properties can come from values
              defined in the configuration file, system properties, environment variables, the ThreadContext
              Map, and data present in the event. Users can further customize the property providers by
              adding their own <a href="../lookups.html">Lookup</a> Plugin.
            </p>
        </div></div>

        <div class="section"><h2>Documentation<a name="Documentation"></a></h2>
          <p>The Log4j 2 User's Guide is available on this <a href="manual/index.html">site</a> or as a downloadable
            <a href="log4j-users-guide.pdf">PDF</a>
          </p>.
        </div>
        <div class="section"><h2>Requirements<a name="Requirements"></a></h2>
           <p>
             Log4j 2 requires Java 5 but will take advantage of enhancements in Java 6 to improve performance.
             Some features may require optional dependencies. These dependencies are
             specified in the documentation for those features.
          </p>
        </div>

        <div class="section"><h2>News<a name="News"></a></h2>
          <p>
            Log4j 2 is now available for testing. The API for Log4j 2 is not compatible with Log4j 1.x, however an adapter
            is available to allow applications to continue to use the Log4j 1.x API. Adapters are also available for
            Commons Logging and SLF4J.
          </p>
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